Category: Stampin’ Up!

Welcome to the August 2017 Pals’ Blog Hop. Thank you so much for joining us today. This month we’re going to “Cut It Out.” Participants will be featuring projects with “cuts” from punches, dies, Framelits, Edgelits, or Thinlits. Whether you’re just starting the hop, or have come from a previous Pal’s blog, you’ll find the line-up toward the end of my post to help you move along.

Paper Cuts

Today I’ve got a cute little pocket you can use any time of the year, but for our purposes today I was thinking along the lines of a project you could put together quickly and send to school with your kids to give as a gift for your favorite teachers. Fortunately, no fingers were harmed in the making of this project, which is why I’m happy that the only paper cuts achieved were with the proper tools!

What I love about the Naturally Eclectic Designer Series Paper here is that it can be used for anyone, since it’s a neutral green. I decided to use Emerald Envy for my stamping so it would stand out. After all, those little stitches are just too cute! This project goes together fairly easily, since the Pocket Framelits do most of the work.

The sentiment, from the Eastern Beauty stamp set, looks really cute on the Whisper White circle, whose stitches mirror those of the pocket.

And the shred? Easy: I made it with my Stampin’ Trimmer and some scraps of Emerald Envy!

The finishing touch: a sweet little bow in Lemon Lime Twist. If you haven’t worked with this finely woven ribbon, in the new Annual Catalog, I highly recommend you do so.

Now just add a mini pen and a Starbucks gift card. And there you have it! As always, if you want to find the Stampin’ Up! products I’ve shown you today, just look for the product list at the end of this post, right after the Blog Hop line-up.

Now get out there and do something creative today. P.S. Please take a minute to mark your calendar for our next hop on September 13, 2017. Now hop along using the Blog Hop Line-up below. Thank you so much for hopping with the Stampin’ Pretty Pals today. Don’t forget to leave us a comment. We’d love to hear what you have to say about our creative “Cuts.”

It may be almost time to go back to school but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a Pool Party. Not of the swimming variety, mind you, but of the stamping variety.

Pool Party Palooza Part One

Today’s offering is a stunning card in Basic Black and Pool Party.

See what I mean about the Designer Series Paper here? It’s so beautiful you really don’t need to add much to produce a gorgeous card. There isn’t a current embossing powder that coordinates with this palette, especially on Basic Black, so I pulled out my retired Calypso Coral Stampin’ Emboss Powder to stamp the sentiment and laurel.

That Pool Party ⅜” Shimmer Ribbon – can’t get enough of it! And here I paired it with the Basic Black ⅜” Shimmer Ribbon from the same suite. Sparkly and fun!

All this goodness is available for you to purchase any time day or night. Clicking on any of the supplies listed below will take you directly to my online store.

Starting August 1 you can order the pre-release of the Carols of Christmas stamp set and matching Framelits. And for us as demonstrators, yesterday was the first day we could order from the new Holiday catalog. So yes, I guess you can say, it’s

ChristmasinAugust!

The Artisan Design Team for Stampin’ Up! has whipped up some amazing creations with the new Carols of Christmas – so today I’d like to share with you some of their beautiful artwork. Today’s Artisan Team member is Dani Dziama. These are amazingly beautiful. Christmas in August indeed!

I love the use of the Pink Pirouette in the first card. The layers in Deck the Halls are stunning, especially the scored background with the Basic Pearls. And don’t you love the Cherry Cobbler stitched ribbon?

I’m just loving the use of non-traditional colors here. That’s the Sheet Music background stamp on the Peace on Earth card.

On the last card if you look really close you can see that Dania has used the Marbled background stamp. She made her own tree with Pink Pirouette cardstock and then covered it in glue and glitter. Brilliant!So if you can’t wait till September, and if you have your Bonus Days shopping coupons, then you might want to move this set to the top of your wish list. It’s never too soon to get started on those holiday cards. 😉

Now go forth and do something creative today!

Here are the links for this set, in cling mount and in wood, as well as the matching Framelits. And don’t forget, buying the products as a bundle will save you 10%!

Welcome to the July 2017 Pals Blog Hop. Thank you so much for joining us today. This month we’re having a Pattern Party! Hoppers will feature projects using their favorite Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper and coordinating embellishments. After all, color coordination is a Stampin’ Up! Strength.

Whether you’re just starting the hop, or have come from visiting my friend Rae‘s blog, you’ll find the line-up toward the end of my post to help you move along.

Pattern Party 2017

“Welcome to the party, Pal!” That’s a movie quote; any guesses as to who said it and in what movie? Just thought I’d toss out a little trivia while you’re hopping today.

Sometimes it can be really hard to work with patterns. I know I certainly struggle when I’m trying to coordinate my clothing. (Fail). What’s great about the Designer Series Paper from Stampin’ Up! is that they’ve done all the hard work for you. Every single pack of designer paper has a “recipe” of matching colors so you can never go wrong.

Another great thing about Designer Series Paper (we’re just gonna call it DSP for the rest of this post) is that it is so beautiful that you don’t even need to add anything to it. You can just use it right out of the package as a simple background on a card base and you could call it a day!

For my project today I want to share a card that I CASED from a lovely Canadian demonstrator, Sandi McIver. I think we’ve both fallen for the same DSP – and why not, it’s totally gorge!

I love the combination of Pool Party and Tranquil Tide, don’t you? What makes this card so fun and breezy is that the DSP has done all the hard work. I simply highlighted the floral pattern by mounting it onto Tranquil Tide cardstock. I fussy cut the little flower that is on the left corner just above the sentiment – so basically the only stamping I did was putting the sentiment onto Whisper White cardstock with Tranquil Tide ink.

It makes a big visual impact but you don’t have to slave away for hours to make it. Is there anything better than that? I certainly don’t think so! The trick to making this card look so good is to cut the matting just a teeny bit bigger than the DSP and Whisper White cardstock. In this case, the border around both pieces is ⅛”.

Okay, enough about me. Get out there and do something creative today – even if it’s just going through this Blog Hop – that counts! Your next stop is Jeanie Stark at Just Stampin’. You’ll love her blog – she does beautiful work!

All through the month of July you will receive a $5 coupon for every $50 you spend – and that’s cumulative! Spend $100, get $10, spend $150 get $15, you get the idea. It’s just like Kohls’ cash! Spend now and get free stuff in August!

You will receive an email with a unique coupon code which you will enter online on any order you place in August.

And what’s even better, Stampin’ Up! is giving you an early start on your Christmas cards – that’s right, you can order the Carols of Christmas stamp set next month, August, before it’s available in the Holiday Catalog in September!

Here are some samples of this card set in action:

There is also a coordinating set of framelits. And if you bundle the stamps and the dies you can save 10%. And if you have shopped in July and you have your Bonus Days coupon codes, you can redeem them to purchase that bundle!

So get those fingers warmed up and shop till you drop! You reach my online store here or click on “Shop” up above. You can even click on the picture in the sidebar to your right!

There’s never been a better time to join Stampin’ Up!

Right now there is a special “Christmas in July” bonus: the Essentials Gift Pack. This is a great bundle of products that you get for free when you join. FREE! That’s a $72 value right there! The starter kit is just $99, but you get to pick out $125 worth of crafting goodies. Add to that the Essentials Gift Pack, and that’s almost $200 in product for just $99. That’s a 50% savings. WOW!

Here is what you get in the gift pack:

That’s a lot of crafting goodness – BUT WAIT! There’s more!

A brand-new, not yet released, Christmas stamp set!

It’s Christmas in July, all right!

So if you’ve been on the fence about joining, just jump off and get in here now! And remember, there is NO obligation on your part. Get the kit and keep it, it’s yours. You never have to buy another thing if you don’t want.

But if you’re like most of us, you don’t want to miss out on the added savings that demonstrators get when purchasing for themselves: up to 25% off everything! Plus you get advance notice of special sales, catalog sneak peeks way before the general public, and best of all, you’ll meet some of the funnest people on the planet!!

Just click on “Join Today” above or click here to go right to the sign up page. You can sign up online and get started today.

Ho, ho, ho! Sorry, I know it’s not even July, but we’re now closer to Christmas than away from it. Not trying to rub it in, but I want you to be prepared. No, I’m not listening to carols yet, but I know that sometimes we think about Christmas in July and so I thought I’d get a head start!

Ready to hang your stocking?

Not yet? No worries. This stamp set will do it for you.

I used several tools for this, but making this card really didn’t take that long. The cutting is mostly die cut, and it’s so easy to run card stock and embossing folders through the Big Shot.

The brick background is a Textured Impressions Embossing Folder called Brick Wall.

The squares and oval were all cut using the Stitched Shapes Framelits.

The pine branches were cut using one of the branch dies from the Pretty Pines Thinlits.

The splatters were made with a stamp – so no artistic prowess needed for that, haha!

All of this loveliness sits on a standard A2 card base made with the Whisper White Thick Cardstock. Here’s another look at the cluster of shapes:

I’ll be using this stamp set in a couple more posts this week, and I’ll highlight some of the newer products I’ve used in my designs.

Now I know it’s nice out, so get out there and do something creative today!

Today I’m featuring the last installment of my Paper Pumpkin series with the June kit, One in a Melon. This time I decided to play around with the little pre-printed note card that comes in the kit.

Here’s what the original looked like:

And here’s my alternate design idea:

When you’re in a funk about finding a new design, just turn everything sideways! You’ll gain a new perspective and hopefully some new ideas of how to carry on!

I decided to use a different stamp set with this card, Label Me Pretty. It has a matching punch, making it super easy to align and get a nice, crisp outline of the image.

But other than the stamp and punch (and a bit of bling), everything else came right from the kit.

the watercolor banner I placed sideways

the leaves are the laser cut stickers that come with the kit

the Melon Mambo twine is also from the kit

You know I’m crazy for anything that sparkles, so I jazzed up the card with some of the Glitter Enamel Dots:

I hope you have enjoyed taking a bit of a longer look at My Paper Pumpkin. It’s a great value, and ANYONE can use these kits – young, old, novice stampers, seasoned pros. As they say, you’re only limited by your imagination. And even if that’s on the fritz, there’s always Google and Pinterest, I’m just sayin’!

Somehow I didn’t think that the word pizzazz had two Zs in it! Who knew? But I have to admit that I’m really liking the shimmer ribbon in the new catalog, and in this case, in the Pear Pizzazz color.

This is another of my alternate uses for the My Paper Pumpkin kit, One in a Melon. Here I’ve used the tissue paper (that you would normally put in the gift bag) as the front piece for my project. Love those little watermelon seeds! Yummy!

I’m amazed the bow came out so pretty here! Usually I struggle with ribbon, and fuss with it endlessly, but somehow it just all came together!

I also have gotten a lot of use out of the Metallic Sequin assortment. The container you get is filled with sequins and three different shapes and five different colors:

Hearts, Stars, and regular sequin shape

Gold, White, Clear, Silver, and Black

(Unfortunately, when I just went to look up the item number for you, I discovered that those sequins have been discontinued! I do apologize for going on and on about them, but at least I used something from my stash? That has to count for something, haha)!

All in all a successful venture, I think. I again used different pieces of the kit and tried to kick it up a notch. That explains the watermelon rind in black, the angled square watercolor paper, and the word “Sweet.”

I think you’ll find lots of different ways to use leftover supplies from the My Paper Pumpkin kits, in easy and unique ways.

How about you take off and do something creative today? Your brain will thank you!

Sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it! That’s just my clever way of saying “here is another post featuring the One in a Melon kit from Stampin’ Up!”

My Paper Pumpkin June Alternatives

I guess it would be redundant to say my My Paper Pumpkin. Hmm. At any rate, today’s card is a mash-up of one of the first projects I shared with you.

I began by taking the tag off the bag, and the little clothespin, and then I made a card from the pieces parts.

Disassembled the gift bag and cut down a piece to use as a card front (3 ⅞” x 4 ⅜”)

Cut a piece of Basic Black cardstock ½” x 3 ⅞” and adhere to the card just under the bag piece

Cut a piece of the tissue paper into a banner and glued that down on to the cut bag piece

Take the tag from the gift bag and adhere it to the front of the card, at a slight angle, and overlapping the tissue paper banner

Using Tombow mono adhesive attach the little clothespin to the tag, laying it flat

If desired, use a white gel pen to make little polka dots on the small piece of Basic Black

Again, really easy, quick, and makes a nice impression. See it here:

Adorbs, right! I just love the color combos on this card: Melon Mambo, Emerald Envy, Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Basic Black; it all just feels so summery!

I know that it’s hard to send cards in the mail when they have bumps and protuberances, which is why I chose to turn the clothespin to lie flat. Did you know that the Post Office has a special stamp just for cards that are square or have the goose bumps? The stamp is a blue butterfly; I think the cost is 71 cents. Ask for the “non-machinable” stamp. They’ll know what you’re talking about.

Tomorrow I’ll have another quick card for you. It’s so easy to use up the leftover parts of the My Paper Pumpkin kit!

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The content in this blog is the sole responsibility of Amy Hoptay as an Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and the use of and content of classes, services or products offered is not endorsed by Stampin’ Up!